Inachevé

Six - Anonymous

Rain poured in white streaks across the timeworn London buildings. Yellow lines struck the horizon as dark clouds swirled menacingly over the charcoal chimneys.  Silhouettes hurried in and out of my vision, some bumped into me, sending me into soupy puddles of mud.  Once resuming from such unpleasant experiences, I hurried down the road.  High shrills of horses and the commanding voices of their drivers echoed in my ears.  The whips cracked through the stiff air, and the horses’ hooves struck the pavement with such force, I could feel the ground tremor.  I would seldom turn my head at such commotion because I was quite accustomed to this town’s madness.  I squinted against the stinging lines of rain, looking for my brother. 

I saw him, his slender frame dodging beneath the flailing hooves of an upright horse.  The driver was shouting in anger at my brother as he tried to jerk the carriage horse aside.  My brother and the horse were playing a dangerous game of “dodge.” I ran forward, ducking under arms, parcels, and carriages.  I soon reached my brother.  Crying out as loud as I could, I extended a hand to grab my brother’s shoulder before I heard a piercing whinny above up.  I looked up and saw the horse’s rotund belly above me.

“Oscar…” I stuttered under my breath, my fingers groping the space where I believed my brother was. “Run!”  I turned my eyes to Oscar, just to see that he, too, was paralyzed by fear. “Get out!”  I shouted as I made to knock him out of harm’s way.  The one thing that kept running through my head was how fourteen years of living was not long enough for us; especially for me.  I had plans and they were all striking the ground along with the droplets of rain.

We had no time to move—down came the beast’s hooves.  My heart flipped in my chest.  I fell into a pool of darkness…

A cool rag draped over my forehead stirred me to my senses.  Through blurry eyes, I saw a round light spinning rhythmically above me.  I sighed and closed my eyes.  I must’ve been rescued and taken back home.  I smiled softly and opened my eyes again, this time the room wasn’t the familiar worm-rotten room I thought I was in, instead, the walls were completely white.  I looked to my right and saw a low table with colorful articles lying on its surface.  The articles were glossy and I could see crinkled faces of people caked in make-up and fancy clothes. I looked to the right of the papers and saw a clunky, cumbersome glass with a handle sticking out that resembled a candle’s stick handle—it wasn’t attractive at all.  I turned to my left and only saw a bare wall.  The plaster was so smoothly applied I couldn’t help but reach up and touch it.  I looked ahead and saw a huge flat window in front of me.  However, it wasn’t a window which I could peer through, instead, it was a reflection of myself in a blurry black.  It was propped on a stand, as if it was a magnificent piece of art.  As I stared at my disfigured reflection, I saw a young man beside me.

I gasped and my body jerked straight up, hitting the arm that held the rag on my face.  I turned my eyes and let out a scream of surprise at the sight of the young man so close to me.  The stranger screamed, too, jumping back into the tiny table behind him.  The glossy articles scattered everywhere and the man’s clumsy feet ripped them to pieces.

I scrambled from the bed and pressed my back against its post. I stared at this young man who looked so oddly familiar.  “Get away from me!”  I yelled fiercely before clasping a hand over my mouth.  I looked up at the stranger who didn’t seem as surprised as I was.  “What did you do to me, lad? What in God’s name is wrong with my voice?”

The young man laughed before rubbing his knuckles under his nose.  I squinted at him in disgust, as if the gesture he had just made belonged only to my brother.

I looked around the room in jerky motions, catching sight of many foreign things. I marveled at how bright this room was, and how there were inappropriate cladded women on almost every wall.  I turned my attentions back to the stranger.